1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a case for containing, a disk cartridge, and more particularly, to a case for containing, a mini magneto-optical disk cartridge.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Nowadays, various recording media for saving the image information or data have been widely used, among which the most popular medium is the disk-like recording medium. Following, the technology development, the recording medium has been, advanced from the conventional floppy disk to the CD, and then a mini disk of the magneto-optical disk is getting more and more popular.
Usually, the disk is protected not only in a disk cartridge but also in a case. For example, the CD is protected by a case; however the 3.5-inch floppy disk is protected by covering with a disk cartridge and then stored in a case. U.S. Pat. No. 5,570,782, bulletined in Nov. 5, 1996, discloses a disk cartridge case, which is applied to the containing of a disk cartridge by a cover front member. In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 5,540,328, bulletined in Jul. 30, 1996 by Ricoh Co. Ltd., discloses a slide-type case to contain a disk cartridge, comprising a pair of case piece 2 and 3 joined together in U-shape, as shown in FIG. 1. And, a tongue-like lever 5 is assembled on a sidewall 3c of the case piece 3. An engaging portion 5a, which is formed by bending the lever 5 inwardly, is engaged with a slot portion 8 of the cartridge, and the disk cartridge will be put in the case.
However, the pair of case piece 2 and 3 of the case disclosed in the ""328 Patent cannot be precisely joined together. For this reason, there is certain company providing a case with a slideway 3exe2x80x2 disposed on a left sidewall 3cxe2x80x2 and a right sidewall 3dxe2x80x2 of the lower case piece 3xe2x80x2, respectively, as shown in FIG. 2. Thus, the upper case piece 2xe2x80x2 can slide from the rear side of the lower case piece 3xe2x80x2, and position by the rear sidewall of the upper case piece 2xe2x80x2 and the protrusion 3f near the slideway 3exe2x80x2. 
Nevertheless, the above-mentioned cases, as shown in FIG. 2, still have some disadvantages such as difficult assembling, breakable lever, difficult shaping, complicated molding, etc.
An object of the present invention is to provide a case, with the features that the mold for forming the case can be simply prepared, the components of the case can be easily assembled and the lever for engaging the disk cartridge is not easy to break.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a case having an easy assembling engaging means.
In order to achieve the above objects and to avoid the disadvantages of the prior art, the present invention discloses a case for containing a disk cartridge, in which the disk cartridge is inherently provided with at least one recess formed on a bottom surface thereof, the case comprising:
an upper case member;
a lower case member;
a pivoting mechanism pivoting the lower case member on the upper case member to form a substantially hollow parallelepiped which defines a chamber therein and has an inserting opening, such that the disk cartridge is adapted to be inserted through the inserting opening and received in the chamber,
a fastening mechanism, disposed between the upper case member and the lower case member to retain the upper case member with the lower case member;
cartridge retaining means, having at least one arm resiliently biasing upward, the at least one arm having two opposing ends with one end thereof extending from the bottom plate of the lower case member and the other end provided with a protrusion;
Therefore, when the disk cartridge is completely inserted into the chamber of the case, the protrusion is adapted to be allocated in the recess formed on the bottom surface of the disk cartridge, whereby securely positioning the disk cartridge in the case.
Since the width of the arm will not be restricted by the height of the sidewall, the lever of the present invention has stronger strength and resilience and is not easy to break. Moreover, the structure of the cartridge retaining means of the present invention is very simple and the arm flipping orientation is same as the mold releasing orientation. Thus, the mold of the case of the present invention can be easier prepared. Furthermore, the arm of the cartridge retaining means is disposed on the top or bottom plate, so that the molding and mold releasing are facilitated.
The foregoing and other objects and advantages of the invention and the manner in which the same are accomplished will become clearer based on the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.